To him, it will be remembered as a week-long interruption during the summer of 2015, packed with flights, stress, negotiations, calls and questions — everything Braden Holtby would have preferred to avoid during the offseason months. It bridged the arbitration hearing held in Toronto, when the Washington Capitals made their case for the restricted free agent’s new salary, and Holtby’s camp countered in kind. It found resolution once the phone stopped ringing and the interviews ended, when Holtby could return to his lake house and, a five-year extension worth $30.5 million signed, relax.
“I hibernated after that to let it wear off so it wasn’t a big deal,” the goaltender said Wednesday.